Fitbit has no immediate plans to support Windows Phone

Fitbit (www.fitbit.com), an online service that helps consumers stay in shape with exercising and more, has announced publicly on Twitter that the company has no immediate plans to support Windows Phone. The service is currently available for both iOS and Android through two apps, as well as Windows 8 / RT with Fitbit now listed on the Windows Store.

@pinnassog No current plans for a Windows Phone 8 app with syncing capabilities, however the Windows 8 tablet app is live!

This is a let down for those who wish to use the service and own a Windows Phone. We're confused why Fitbit has decided to release a Windows app without a companion app for Microsoft's mobile platform - it would make more sense for it to be the other way around. For Windows Phone to be left out of the party like this, we're not particularly impressed.

The good news is Windows Phone already has options for consumers who wish to keep fit, including the likes of runtastic and MyWalk. So not all hope is lost, but Fitbit is a nice, fully featured service which we'd like to see offered to Windows Phone owners.

This is a shame. I love Fitbit, and I have to keep my android device around to sync. I really wish the likes of Jawbone, Fitbit and Nike would wake up and realize that WP8 is here to stay. I have lost 126lbs with the help of my smartphone via endomondo etc, and support from these companies would be well received.

It would be helpfull if Windows had not put 3 platforms to code for in spite of 2, and it would help if the guys of Windows would go to catch developers, they have to pay licences and they have to code for a platform that right now has few users.
They should reduce the amount of useles comercials on the TV and spend money in helping companies to develope their apps, is not that difficult to figure out. Thsi baby is going to be a still born if they don't nurish it enough.
What are we going to say when Southwest Airlines say I won't develope an app, ohh who are them? or citibank? I will change to chase so I have their app? I think they have a serious problem they created a realy good platform, their programers are great but the people they have managing this aren't.

Runtastic, endomondo, myrun are all fine - but they don't offer the component and socialization that fit bit and Nike fuel offer. I have the Nike + Kinect for Xbox and would really like to see the fuel band get WP8 support. Just a neat way to keep track of your fitness. Here's to continued hope that WP8 turns out to be everything we want / expect it to be...

The app for Andoid and iOS are just the dashboard. you can just put a shortcut to the website on your phone. BUT they do allow bluetooth synching with the iPhone, which they do not have for Android either. So no real loss. Would it be nice to sync via my phone, sure, but one less thing to drain my battery since I have both of them on me always.

A lot of concentration on the apps and developers that are not on WP. There are almost always replacements that we have. WPC should make a comprehensive list of "Windows Phone doesn't have ____ but it does have".
So much negativity :(

That's my question as well Perhaps is just isn't as easy as Microsoft purported, to port an app to WP8 after creating an app for Windows 8/RT.
I could understand not having a concurrent release, but to not have an app ready to be released on WP8 shortly after W8, is puzzling. Oh well, I'm not a developer, so what do I know :)

Fitbit does have a WP8 application. It is lacking the sync functionality found in the Win 8/rt app. My guess is that it has less to do with porting Win 8 / rt apps to WP8 than is does getting the sync to work over different phone's bluetooth hardware. The Fitbit comes with a USB Bluetooth adapter that it uses for syncing on a win or mac computer. This still bothers me that sync is not available. Maybe Nokia can help them out and make sync on WP8 exclusive to the Nokia phones for a few months.

Was just about to post the same thing. Thought it was meant to be a few extra lines of code from a Windows 8 app to a WP8 app. Maybe this information is not common knowledge to the developers. Grinds my gears when Win8 gets a decent app but it doesn't come out for WP8 like the 4OD app and TvCatchup.

There is a "fitbit companion" app that I use in the wp marketplace and it works really well. It does steps, weight, calories, stairs, etc. it leys you pick days and has graphs. Its a really good alternative. Also m.fitbit.com is great on windows phone too.

I wonder how many of these companies that are making public announcements about NOT supporting Windows Phone 8 are doing so because of veiled threats from Apple or Google about dropping them from their respective App Stores if they choose to support Windows Phone 8? Why else would they support Windows 8 and not the phone, when the port to the phone is supposed to be relatively easy once an app is written for Win 8? Just wondering ...

I thought apps for windows8 can easily be ported to wp8??
What happen to the same KERNEL bullshit msft is talking about??
I ain't jumping ship until I see connectivity between wp8 and w8
im tired of this MICROSOFT CORPORATE BEAUCRACY

How is this particular issue "MICROSOFT CORPORATE BEAUCRACY" exactly? It's up to the developers to perform the work, not Microsoft. And yes, porting an app from Windows 8 to Windows Phone 8 is supposed to be much easier than to create one from scratch.

I will agree with you on the "connectivity between wp8 and w8" point. When Ballmer was on stage and claimed that "if you want the best Windows 8 experience, you will want a Windows 8 phone" (or something to that effect), I expected something more than just SkyDrive sync. I love Windows 8 on my Lenovo Yoga, but where exactly is the integration between the phone and desktop?

I for one am getting sick and tired of these companies making statements like this. Porting Windows 8 apps to Windows Phone has been made MUCH easier as they share similar WinRT API's, and the same kernel. Everyone here upset over this decision should reply to their tweet. Even if you aren't planning on buying their products, show them there are people who have Windows Phone and want the app ecosystem support it needs and deserves.

The mobile website works fine, as good as the app, so you can just pin the site to make it behave like an app. It is curious that they don't make a native app though seeing how Microsoft is such a big supporter of Fitbit. One of the accessories they sell at the Microsoft Store.

Saying "who" and "we don't need them anyway" isn't going to help the platform succeed. There is a perceived app shortage, so it is a shame when any app doesn't plan on making a WP8 version, especially when it was supposed to be easy to develop WP8 apps from the RT version.

No need for Fitbit, Runkeeper or any of those. Endomondo is a perfect fitness app for Windows Phone 7/8 and it also has a great companion app on Windows 8/RT. It's accurate, feature-rich and syncs super fast. One of my must-have apps on all Windows platforms.

WPCentral's reporting should be better. There are a lot of details missing in this article.
The long and short of it is that this article is misleading. You can use your fitbit just fine on Windows Phone.
Again, there are fitbit apps that link with the website via the Fitbit API on ALL platforms, iOS Android, Windows Phone 7/8, Windows 8/RT, Blackberry, etc, etc.
There is no "official" Fitbit app for Windows Phone 7/8 to my knowledge, as indicated, but there are a few Fitbit apps in the store which successfuly use the fitbit web services API to provide a great experience. Search the Windows Phone store for fitbit and you'll see several. I personally use Fitbit companion, which tracks my fitbit One and my Aria scale.
These apps work by using the fitbit software on your PC to sync over wireless ANT protocol and a dongle that comes with the device whenver it is in the stated 20 foot range. That's how fitbit gets the information to their website. For the Aria scale, fitbit uses your home wifi to do the same thing.
What is on Android and iOS, but not on Windows Phone is an app that syncs from the tracker device to the phone with bluetooth 4.0. Some may feel this is necessary, but I for one agree with the posters that think that this is an unnecessary drain of battery when the fitbit will sync to the PC automatically.
The reason that there is no such app may be fitbit's decision, but at this point they have no choice since Bluetooth 4.0 (more specificlly Bluetooth Low Energy) is not supported on Windows Phone -- not because of the lack of hardware (a search of the Bluetooth sig shows support for BLE on the chips that make up Windows Phones) but because the drivers are not there. (BLE is supported on Windows 8/RT, but not on Windows Phone today). A few persons in the know at Nokia have said that driver updates are coming pretty soon to support a few things like this, notably BLE, Wifi-Direct, MIracast, but Microsoft is not going to commit to any features and certainly not to timing for them.
Even if the drivers were there, fitbit has not released the API or made the protocol available for the BLE interface to the actual fitbit device. That means that ONLY fitbit can write software to sync directly to it. They have said they are considering releasing an API for that, but no update yet (and they probably are not even working on it).
Probably going into details like this is too difficult for WPCentral, or they think that doing so will confuse readers, or they want to just grab hits with "sensational stories and headlines".
At any rate, now you know the rest of the story.
-e

I use FitBit companion but the main area of pain for me is you cant log food throughout the day. If FitBit would fix the issue with healthVault UK it wouldnt be a problem as I could use my preferred app. that being Livescape to log food, have it sync to healthvault and back to fitbit.com.

One more thing... The Nokia Lumia 920 did pass by the bluetooth sig supporting BLE at one point. That means that using some unoffical driver, the device was able to pass cert. Since that means that some part of the driver code was written, the case, perhaps we have reason to believe that Windows Phone could could get support for BLE sooner than later.
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Also, the reason that Windows Phone doesn't "just have support for BLE since Windows RT has it" is the chipsets. Windows RT uses the Tegra chips, which are must different the Qualcomm snapdragon, hence the need to obtain/write a new driver for Windows Phone.

This is disappointing since I just bought a Fitbit One. I'd already known about the lack of an official app, but thankfully Fitbit allows their API to be used by others. At leaast Fitbit allows syncing to the computer directly with information viewable via the Web. The Jawbone Up doesn't even do that. According to them, I suppose, if you don't have an iOS device, they don't even want you as customers since the Up only works via an iOS app. I can live without an official app, but it is frustrating to see that developers are still biding their time on WP app development.

Does it seem to anyone else think the lack of support for WP but support for W8 is purposeful? Just a little suspicious as this constantly happens. Especially the transfer from one to the other is supposedly a breeze?

It is crazy that Microsoft went to the effort to require the USB charging port to be standard (centered at the bottom) for accesories but does not not support Bluetooth 4.0 for accesories. The competing flagship phones iPhone 4S, iphone 5, and Galaxy S3 all utilize BT 4.0 and the low energy features to run accesories.
At CES this week you'll see a ton of new gadgets, especially fitness related that utilize Bluetooth 4.0. All these toys increase the lock-in to windows phone competitors. Many of these devices have complimentary apps on iphone and sometimes android that do background syncing with the BT LE protocol.
I'm not surprised fit-bit is not supporting Windows Phone 8.
WPCentral needs to acklnowledge more often that the lack of OS support for BT LE was a mistake. WP8 users are missing out on some great BT 4.0 hardware.

Read my second post. It is coming somewhat soon. This is powered by the synergy between Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, but remember, we only have the first version of the merged O/S out. Have just a little patience.

If I didn't already have nearly 9 million steps while wearing a Fitbit, I'd dump them just for saying that...
There's no vaild reason for them not to support Windows Phone anymore. The Lumia 920 is BT4.0 certified so that's not even going to fly.

Read my second post. There is a valid reason they can't use BLE, since the O/S doesn't support it. It appears that Nokia got that certification using some sort of beta unreleased drivers, because it didn't make it into the O/S yet.
The good here is that a lot of work must have been done on the drivers, so the support could appear soon.

Coming from iPhone 4 to the Lumia 820, I only ever used the Fitbit app itself for food entry. Most other stuff was done on the website. My workaround has been as follows: connecting my Fitbit account to a newly created MyFitnessPal.com account, whose great WP8 app I use for on-the-go food entry (I actually think Fitbit uses MFP to get their calorie info, but I might be mistaken). In any case, all the food syncs up to my Fitbit profile, and my One activity then syncs up with my MFP profie, keeping everything lockstep. Additionally, given the lack of Nike+ or Runkeeper for WP8, I synced Runtastic to my MFP account, and use it to keep other activities in sync.
Get all that? It works great.

This really is a platform issue - not a FitBit issue...
You don't see ANY apps that communicate directly with standalone low power data collection devices on windows phone - or W8 metro - because WP & W8 metro do not support the Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP) - and Bluetooth SPP is the method most all these devices use to communicate.
It's an omission that will prevent this type of development - and really a subtle acknowledgement that MS has transitioned the operating system from multi-tasking to task-switching. Because apps can't run continuously to service an SPP connection - you can't have an SPP connection. It's something MS could conceivably add - they already have the hardware to do it - but it would take a major re-think of control flow – so don’t hold your breath (I’ve been holding mine for 3 years now).
MS recommends that developers transition to network/web services for retrieving data - and there is a case to be made for that - but for a whole class of devices it’s just not practical. Think of the inherent problems with trying to Wi-Fi enable a wearable FitBit type defice. Network wise – the phone is generally not an access point – so how exactly do you connect the FitBit to it over Wi-Fi – when it’s on the move all day long? Powerwise - instead of weeks of run time – think days or hours…
Bluetooth SPP devices are abundant – can be easily paired and use very little power – it’s a shame we can’t talk to them.

While this is a bummer for Fitbit users, their web site provides 60% of the functionality and is as far away as a Favorite link. Fitbit and the Fitbit web site really should only be used for tracking your steps via the Fitbit tracker. It's wholly inadequate for entering and tracking food.
The much better app for tracking food is MyFitnessPal - which DOES have a Windows Phone app. It’s an incredible site and a great app that’s available across all platforms.

As a fitbit ultra and aria owner, I too am disappointed. Here's a tip for owners of fitbit devices: set up a myfitnesspal account. They have a great WP app and you can sync your fitbit data and myfitnesspal data. I use myfitnesspal on WP to track my food and this is synched to fitbit. And after synching fitbit data via pc/WiFi, the data is quickly synched to myfitnesspal.

What, fitbit? Is it TOO hard?! Does it take THAT much to have it out there, "possibly" competing with your other cesspools...ok, perhaps I go too far, but seriously from one step to the next it shouldn't hurt to try. =/